Lurker by Plu

[raw]
made by Plu for LD27 (COMPO)
Due to an unfortunate miscalculating, the Lurker satelitte sent to explore the Spectral Belt has arrived with only 10 seconds worth of rocket fuel... can you maneauver it to collect as many research points as possible?

Remember! You are in a completely frictionless enviroment, controls might take a little getting used to. You will continue to move and rotate until you apply your thrusters to change your course. Move in close to a planet and then point the light-grey front of the satellite towards it to scan.

(Hit the space bar at the end of the game to play again)

Windows 64bit executable + .love file included. If you don't have Windows 64bit, download Love from love2d.org and double click the .love file to play.

If you install the Chrome plugin Loveliness, you can play the game straight from your browser by picking the "Web" link.

Ratings

Coolness 36% 1477
Overall 2.70 891
Fun 2.52 879
Graphics 2.00 1051
Innovation 2.70 763
Theme 2.74 902

Feedback

Serishmus
24. Aug 2013 路 21:55 UTC
Is there a way to restart once it's over without quitting the game?
馃帳 Plu
25. Aug 2013 路 11:38 UTC
Hitting the space bar brings you back to the intro screen. Probably should've mentioned that on the end screen...
josefnpat
26. Aug 2013 路 10:42 UTC
Interesting concept. I'm not sure how close I need to get to a planet (or if I need to push a button of some sort) to scan it.

Nice job!
馃帳 Plu
26. Aug 2013 路 11:16 UTC
No button needed, but you have to get fairly close and point the front of the satellite (the lighter gray part) towards the planet to scan.
vrld
26. Aug 2013 路 13:22 UTC
Fun game once you get the hang of it. It really feels like I am controlling a sattelite. Though some sound effects would have improved the experience even further.
rfgpfeiffer
26. Aug 2013 路 13:41 UTC
Please call your Download LD27-Lurker.love oror similar. If everybody in LD27 calls their file LD.love or game.exe it gets very confusing
BlackBulletIV
26. Aug 2013 路 21:08 UTC
The concept is quite cool, but it's a bit too tricky to control. The rotation seems off-axis a bit too, and it's pretty to stop yourself once you start spinning in any great measure.
oajfh
26. Aug 2013 路 21:58 UTC
Nice first effort as well, heh.

It's a shame though, I didn't hear any audio, the right music would have set the mood nicely. The controls feel pretty good, too. I also quite like the 'transmission lost' effect.

Let's each make a really good one next time, eh ? :)
LordHellMaX
26. Aug 2013 路 23:57 UTC
It was pretty cool, I liked the physics!
leafo
27. Aug 2013 路 05:21 UTC
nice game, tricky controls
alts
30. Aug 2013 路 08:13 UTC
Interesting game. It took me a while to figure out which end to point at the planet. Felt a bit dumb.

This game has the unfortunate property of the optimal strategy being the least interesting one. If you barely use any fuel, and simply wait to arrive near a planet, not only do you guarantee that you'll have enough time to scan, but you'll have done so with minimal fuel usage.

A way I thought of to make the optimal strategy a more interesting one is to add gravity. Satellite trajectories are often plotted to use gravitational slingshots (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slingshot_effect). These allow for velocity changes without the use of external power supplies. This would nullify the old strategy, as drifting objects wouldn't have enough speed to take advantage of the slingshot effect, and would just be dragged towards to planet (or waste fuel escaping).

Enough rambling. Congrats on your first LD. Nice work.
anotheryeti
04. Sep 2013 路 16:49 UTC
Kind of wish the gravity took hold at a higher altitude. Was basically impossible to do much interesting w/ ten seconds of fuel and no gravity. :\